But to an expansive Broncos fan base that has season-ticket holders from all 50 states, nothing felt so good as the freedom of exhale.

Breathe again, people. The Broncos did not blow it in the playoffs. To the contrary, they beat San Diego, 24-17, in a second-round AFC playoff game on a windy but mostly temperate Sunday afternoon before a raucous sellout crowd at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

The Broncos had to nervously hang on. They needed two clutch — clutch! — third-down converting completions by Peyton Manning to tight end Julius Thomas in the final minutes to ice it, including a third-and-17 while under pressure with 3:07 remaining.

But bring on Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.

The Baltimore playoff debacle is, if never forgotten, at least more than 365 days in the past. The defeat of the Chargers was validation for Manning, forgiveness for Rahim Moore, hope of even better days ahead.

"There were a lot of teams that had disappointing losses last year," said Manning, who finished 25 of 36 for 230 yards, two touchdowns and an interception that bounced off his receiver's pads. "Atlanta and Washington and everybody said in that locker let's get back next year — it just doesn't happen. It's hard to get back."

At that point, Manning stopped to smile at his young son Marshall, who yelled out from the corner of the press room while in the care of granddaddy Archie. But back to the Broncos getting here with a 13-3 regular season record that again earned the No. 1 playoff seed.

"I told the team last night you need to be commended for getting back to this point," Manning said. "It's hard to explain all the stuff we've been through all season. So to get to this point was really hard work and to win this game was a lot of hard work."

Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning drops back to throw during the first quarter. More photos. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

And now it's Manning and the Broncos against Brady and the Patriots in the AFC championship game. Please, this is too big to rely on the cliché gimmick of Manning-Brady XV Sunday in Denver.

This will be Manning and Brady for the right to play in Super Bowl XLVIII.

"Tom Brady has been an outstanding quarterback for such a long time but the game next week is the Broncos versus the Patriots," Manning said. "I know there's going to be some individual matchups that get headlines but it will be a battle between good teams. Teams that have been through a lot."

The AFC championship appearance will be the Broncos' first since they were led by Jake Plummer in the 2005 season. Plummer served as the Broncos honorary captain for their game Sunday. After posting a 39-15 record as a Broncos starter, the Snake came through again as Denver won the toss.

Speaking of quarterback won-loss records, Manning was under pressure to do something about the 9-11 career postseason mark he brought into this game. Does he get too uptight? Does he over prepare?

No and no. Look deeper inside his postseason results on a game-by-game basis and the discovery would be there is no blanket analysis that can be applied to something so diverse.

Manning was exquisite Sunday, and he would have been fantastic if not for some key drops by his teammates.

Manning let the Broncos' running game establish itself. He also threw two touchdown passes to put the Broncos up 14-0 halftime.

It was clear the Broncos entered the game determined to physically push the Chargers around. In the first two meetings between the teams, the Chargers dominated time of possession, holding the ball for nearly 77 minutes combined to roughly 43 minutes for the Broncos.

In particular, the Chargers roughed up the Broncos' front during their previous meeting in December. The Chargers had 177 yards rushing to just 18 yards by the Broncos.

It was different this time.

"We knew after last time people were thinking they could just have their way," said Broncos linebacker Danny Trevathan. "We wanted to show the world what we could do. We heard what people were saying."

Although the Broncos were leading 17-0 entering the fourth quarter, they missed several chances to put the Chargers away. And then, after Broncos starting cornerback Chris Harris left with knee and ankle injuries, San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers threw two 16-yard touchdown passes to Keenan Allen and the Chargers converted a recovered onside kick into a field goal to narrow the score to 24-17 with 3:53 remaining.

But Manning kept making clutch completions to not only put away the Chargers, but bury the memories of the loss to Baltimore from last season. Bring on Tom Brady and the Patriots.

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